Top 5 Sermons of the Year

Last night, I was provoked to think about my 'top 5' Living Stones sermons of 2008... I thought it might be a good exercise in looking at what God has done this year, so here it goes... in chronological order:

1. January '08 - Breathe In/Breathe Out - Parts One & Two [I love sermons that highlight our identity in Christ and our subsequent identity as a community. This series was a dose of fresh vision for me. I'm justifying the fact that I'm mashing 2 sermons into 1 with the fact that you cannot breathe in without breathing out... so there.]
2. March '08 - Love To Death - Betrayal [Harvey and Bobby taught this sermon together and it was one of the most impactful sermons I've heard at LS -- ever. It contrasted the betrayal of Judas with the denial Peter and addressed the potential for these attributes which reside in each one of us. Key moment: the look that Jesus gives to Peter as he carries the cross that would ultimately bear the sin of Peter's very denial. It'll cut you to the core and purge the selfishness, doubt, pride and fear right out of you. Freedom from the guilt of betrayal (both from our hands and the hands of others) is found in abundance at the cross.]
3. April '08 - Good Friday [It wasn't a 'sermon', per se, but the Holy Spirit brought it that night... Danny preached on the Crucifixion with an astonishing amount of zeal, thoughtfulness, compassion and conviction. I don't think anyone left that night without feeling the weight of glory that Christ wrought for us on the cross.]
4. August '08 - Integrated Humanity - Suffering and Prayer [Another one from Danny Daley -- the realities of suffering and prayer were preached with candidness. We looked at the lives of Joseph and Job in order to cultivate a biblical response to suffering -- ultimately, patience. Prayer should be approached similarly. But in all things -- dependence on God.]
5. November '08 - Ecclesia - The Body of Christ [The last 5 minutes of Harvey's sermon said it all: STOP LIVING FOR SMALL THINGS. Enough said.]

Worth mentioning are two services that -- as a whole -- were incredibly impactful. The Easter gathering in April and the 'Tricky' gathering in March were oozing with creativity and new ways to tell the story of Jesus. Ambient video loops, worshipful music, scripture readings with unique instrumental accompaniment, shadow screens, Jesus' ninja-logic... good stuff.